Archives

Located at King's College, London, the Liddell Hart Centre is home to the personal papers of a number of British naval officers of the Dreadnought Era, along with those of other members of the Armed Forces. The full list can be found here. It is recommended that one makes an appointment before visiting.

The National Maritime Museum is probably the United Kingdom's pre-eminent museum of the sea. It is located in the former buildings of the Royal Hospital School at Greenwich in London, and lies across the road from the former Royal Naval College, Greenwich. The museum's Caird Library is home to a large collection of books and personal papers.

The Caird Library's website can be found here. The library catalogue (for books) can be searched here, and the archive catalogue (for papers) can be searched here.

Contact Details.

The Caird Library,
National Maritime Museum,
Greenwich,
London SE10 9NF,
United Kingdom.

Formerly known as the Public Record Office (P.R.O.), The National Archives (T.N.A.) at Kew in west London is the main repository of British naval documents, located in the ADM series. The online catalogue is accessible here. The library catalogue is available here. A "Reader's Ticket" is required to order and view original material, and is obtainable on-site at Kew: Details here. The National Archives is a five-ten minute walk from Kew Gardens railway station and is served by both the London Underground (District Line) and London Overground.

Primary Documents

We maintain a comprehensive list of documents found within the various libraries and archives detailing those we have in-hand in some form, and which we have not. This serves as a good bibliographic accounting as well as a wish-list to help us plan visits to those repositories.

A website devoted to "Naval Weapons, Naval Technology and Naval Reunions". Features much detail on hundreds of naval weapons. The data should really be footnoted, but I doubt that the editor can afford to do that with a decade's worth of work.

The O.D.N.B. has a large number of potted biographies of British naval officers and politicians in its database. Many of these are hopelessly biased and based on incomplete research. The archive of original Dictionary of National Biography articles, which are far more neutral, is of much greater historical value.

The editor of this website, Dr. Mary Jones, wrote her doctoral thesis (a work of some value) on officer education in the Royal Navy, and has published the edited diaries and letters of Admiral John L. Marx. Of particular interest is her nominations database.